First Time
by Alanlol
Summary: Ash had never even taken a girl out on a date before now. After one night, he suddenly had to deal with a girlfriend.


This is my 2nd story. Reviews and criticism are welcome. AAML

**Nice to Meet You**

Ash Ketchum just sat and waited in his room. He was completely alone. He just wanted to think. Think and remember how stupid he was to even think of asking her out. He hadn't planned any of it. It was supposed to be romantic, and dramatic and sweet, whatever asking out's supposed to be like. Yet for some reason, I was dumb enough to ask her to prom in the middle of the hallway in the middle of the day, out of nowhere. And, to my astonishment, she said yes.

It sounded so easy to ask her when I first thought about it at the end of my 2nd year. You just go, bring flowers, and ask.

She's smart, pretty and approachable. She's fun to talk to and easy to get along with. And, she has no history with any guys in our school. And there's the bonus that we're classmates. Seems like someone easy to ask to prom! And I always had some sort of crush on her. Maybe I can ask her!

That was both the best and worst decision I'd made this year.

It's not easy being me. It's not fun to admit, but it's true. Shipped off to a boarding school at seven, I was always ignored in my elementary classes. I never understood it, but that was probably my problem. I always had something that pulled me down, whether figuratively or literally, and led to me being ignored or looked down on. And it was usually my fault.

My life in that boarding school basically went like this: Go to school, get ignored in school, do something rash and probably stupid, and sometimes end up a laughing stock or usually ignored some more. I probably deserved it. The stuff I did, looking back, was downright annoying.

I didn't have much else to make up for my attitude. I always dressed up like someone I saw on television, and I had mediocre athletic skills, despite my loud liking for basketball. It also didn't help that I was over-anxious to do anything and everything.

After a few uneventful years of the same old, same old, I was surprised with a letter containing a scholarship for four years to a high school near my house. It wasn't much better than the boarding school, but I had had enough.

After saying goodbye to the few friends I had there, I packed up, and left with no one even saying goodbye. I haven't been back there since. I kind of regret leaving so abruptly and without telling people, I realize now, were my friends, but I could always stow it away for another few months before it crept back in my head.

On my first day of 3rd year, I still had a crush on her. Though we no longer classmates, I kept in contact with her over the summer. I even managed to scrape together a "summer party" for my group of friends, though I honestly just made it so I could see her. I even tried to start texting her sometimes, though that tactic didn't work as I learned after 10 texts, that she only uses her cell phone in case of an emergency.

I tried to get buffer over the summer, training and practicing basketball day and night. I am a die-hard basketball fan, always was and is. But I never really got up to try and improve enough to make the school team, until that summer. I was determined to make the team to impress her, and look better for the picture and for her. I've never exactly been a fat slob, but I knew that my chances would be much higher if I got in good shape.

At the start of the school year, I tried out for the team, just to see where I was at. To my surprise, I got in! To my disgust, so did Gary.

I wasn't able to become closer to her in our 2nd year, because I never seemed to notice her in a way different from one of the guys. That year, I had taken to treat everyone the same, letting me grow closer to some of my guy classmates, but kind of turning off most of my female classmates. Not to mention, I was, unsuccessfully, trying to ask out her best friend Dawn, for most of the school year. I was good friends with her, but I never thought of Misty as anything more than a friend, at least until a few months ago.

By the end of the year, we were chosen as a pair for a social studies debate. I'm not the brightest of the students in my class, but I can argue well and talk fast enough to shut the opponents up. As we researched and worked for the competition, I grew more and more attached to Misty. I always knew she was always an interesting and fun person to talk to, but I just then realized how much I enjoyed her company.

We've been studying at the gazebos at late afternoon, with barely any students left on the field, with a few rare dormers popping in and out

'Hmm, good basketball conditions today. Not that many people at the court. Not too hot either. I don't feel any rain, and Misty seems to be distracted today. She probably wouldn't even notice I'm gone. Her eyes concentrating on the long paper she wants both of us to read for the debate. I don't know why I've never noticed those light blue eyes, so nice to just stare at, and her soft, white skin, so smooth, and her small hands writing away, so tempting to hold...'

"Can you write down some of the facts for our debate tomorrow Ash?" Misty asked, too engrossed in the paper she was reading to see me turn my head away from her.

Hearing her voice snapped me out of my trance, and all I could let out was a grunt. Frustrated, and to my horror, she grabbed the "debate sheet" that I've been doodling with.

"Ash, you're not even writing anymore! If you can't keep your tiny mind on this for even one minute, I swear you'll be able to dribble a basketball through the hole I'll punch in your head!"

Grimacing, I started writing again, trying to block out whatever I had just been thinking about Misty. But, I never could totally block it out. Over the summer, I occasionally had new crushes, but I always kept on thinking about her after all of those crushes died out.

After a few hours of just sitting around, I felt around for my desk for my laptop, and logged on to a web messenger with my webcam. I looked until I found the name: Brock Harrison. He was a forth year, and was sort of a big brother figure to me. I had promised to keep him posted on anything new that had happened. Even if we were different year levels, we got to talk regularly, and chatted sometimes with a webcam and earphones. He was my best friend in the school, and it wasn't even close. We weren't the funniest people or the best at training, but we always got along well.

One day I tripped on him as he was kneeling and failed to ask somebody to his batch's sophomore night. We both looked ridiculous, but kept on laughing. This first encounter kind of sums up what our friendship's been like the past 2 years.

Brock was also from my boarding school, but we hadn't been friends there. He says it's a shame we hadn't met back then, because if I did…

"You would never have to worry about finding a date again! Just look at the Brockster!" He said confidently.

I laughed as I recalled the years that followed. Brock had gotten exactly one date after asking half the female student population, and even a few teachers. But, as fate would have it, a girl finally went out with him, and not just one of those desperate needy ones. He fell head over heels in love with Lucy, captain of the dance team, and vice versa. Seeing it as destiny that I find a girlfriend too, he's never-endingly bombarded me with potentials. I listened, because I thought I would never get the girl I wanted.

'It just doesn't work that way for guys like us, ' Ash sadly thought then. I always had these words for myself when I thought of asking out Dawn or Misty: "Out of your league". It was good to dream, but that's why they're dreams. They don't happen.

I tried to start off talking about basketball with Brock, but he wouldn't have any of it."Don't you have something to tell me Ash?" Brock excitedly said. "Yeah." That's all Brock had to hear. Next minute, he was scheduling tuxedo fittings and limo renting. He said it was since this might be his first and only time to help me for a date; he went all out, from finding color schemes that matched, to even offering to cook a gourmet dinner for Misty and me. I just stared at the screen of his webcam, thinking all that up at two in the morning.

'Maybe he's not so clueless on girls after all.'

And I spent the next hour listening to Brock excitedly plan the first dance either of us had ever gone to.

- END-


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